Final Stats

BALTIMORE, Md. - The Navy baseball team dropped its second straight game as the Mids came up short on the road at UMBC (7-9) by a score of 2-0. A subpar offensive effort by the Mids (16-9) plagued the visitors in their matchup at the Retrievers' Alumni Field. Navy's offense came away with just four hits on Wednesday, though it's pitching staff kept the game close throughout with just five hits allowed to UMBC.

"It was a close game," remarked head coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "We were really not locked in at the plate and we didn't do a good job of making adjustments to the way they were pitching us. Their pitchers threw well and pitched right at our weaknesses. On the flip side, our four pitchers did a good job and kept us in the ball game throughout. That was a good start for Ben Lowe. Sam [Sorenson] did a nice job following him, but we didn't help him with two errors. Then Andrew [Bartek] and Colin [Brady] had scoreless outings so they completed a solid day of pitching for us. The outcome of today boils down to a poor offensive performance, not necessarily anything else. We need to do a better job at the plate."

The pitching quartet of Ben Lowe (Fr., Memphis, Tenn.), Sam Sorenson (Jr., Etters, Pa.), Andrew Bartek (Jr., Jefferson , Ga.) and Colin Brady (Fr., Seneca, S.C.) led Navy on Wednesday as they combined to hold UMBC to five hits and two unearned runs. Both Lowe and Bartek recorded a team-high total of three strikeouts during their respective appearances.

Offensively, Sean Trent (Jr., Sorrento, Fla.) collected a team-high two base hits as he singled in the third inning and doubled in the sixth. Jack Keller (Sr., Ballston Spa, N.Y.) and Stephen Born (Fr., Strafford, Pa.) notched the Mids' other two hits on the day.

Navy had its best chance to score occur in the top of the first inning as it tried to take advantage of some control issues for UMBC's starting pitcher Connor Staskey, who plunked leadoff hitter Travis Blue (So., Orange, Calif.) and issued walks to Leland Saile (So., Land O'Lakes, Fla.) and Sean Kamhoot (Fr., Gainesville, Fla.). With the bases loaded and two outs, Staskey forced an inning-ending fielder's choice ground out.

The Mids sent five men to the plate in each of the fourth, sixth and seventh innings, but UMBC's pitching quartet of Staskey, Kevin Little, Jonny Dierks and Denis Mikush would not budge. The four Retriever hurlers recorded 16 strikeouts over their nine innings on the mound.

UMBC didn't have much better of a time solving Navy's pitchers as they were unable to score a run until the bottom of the fifth inning. In that frame, the Retrievers used a hit, a walk and two Midshipmen errors to push across the only two runs of the game.

UMBC had two of its other scoring attempts go awry in the fourth and sixth innings when Navy's catcher, Adrian Chinnery (So., Wilmington, Del.) made pin-point pick-off throws to retire runners on the base paths. In the fourth inning, he retired Hunter Dolshun at second base as the Retriever runner wandered a bit too far away from the bag. In the sixth, he sent Brady Zinda back to the dugout with a throw behind the runner at first base.

"Adrian is a very good catcher," said Kostacopoulos. "He's engaged all the time, he listens to things, he picks up on the automatic pick offs and he knows when to go. He's playing well for us behind the plate."

Lowe took a no-decision in his four-inning start as he departed after allowing three hits and a walk. With the four innings of scoreless ball, he lowered his season ERA to 1.38 over 13.0 innings pitched.

Sorenson was saddled with the loss for Navy, while Staskey earned the win for UMBC. The Retrievers' closer Mikush earned his second save of 2015 with a scoreless ninth inning.

Navy will next be in action at home on Saturday with the first of back-to-back doubleheaders versus the reigning Patriot League conference champion Bucknell. The Mids and Bison will begin game one action on both Saturday and Sunday at 12 p.m.